252 FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



on purpose. From their pre\'ious treatment, being 

 too much teiTified to leave the herd, they are easily- 

 driven, if their strength last out, to the settlement. 

 The weather continued so very bad, that we de- 

 termined to make a push and try to reach the ves- 

 sel before night. From the quantity of rain which 

 had fallen, the surface of the whole country was 

 swampy. I suppose my horse fell at least a dozen 

 times, and sometimes the whole six horses were 

 floundering in the mud together. All the little 

 streams are bordered by soft peat, which makes it 

 very difficult for the horses to leap them without 

 falling. To complete our discomfozts, we were 

 obliged to cross the head of a creek of the sea, in 

 which the water was as high as our horses' backs ; 

 and the little waves, owing to the violence of the 

 wind, broke over us, and made u-s very wet and 

 cold. Even the iron-framed Gauchos professed 

 themselves glad when they reached the settlement, 

 after our little excursion. 



The geological structure of these islands is in 

 most respects simple. The lower country consists 

 of clay-slate and sandstone, containing fossils, very 

 closely related to, but not identical with, those 

 found in the Silurian formations of Europe; the 

 hills are formed of white granular quartz rock. 

 The strata of the latter are frequently arched with 

 perfect symmetry, and the appearance of some of 

 the masses is in consequence most singular. Per- 

 nety* has devoted several pages to the description 

 of a Hill of Ruins, the successive strata of which 

 he has justly compared to the seats of an amphi- 

 theatre. The quartz rock must have been quite 

 pasty when it underv/ent such remarkable flexures 

 without being shattered into fragments. As the 

 * Pernety, Voyage aux Isles Malouines, p. 526. 



